The deadline for the abstract submission for the SBE16 Zurich conference has been extended until the 1st of August 2015. The conference takes place from 15-17 June 2016 at the ETH Zurich and focus on system thinking in the built environment. Workshops will be conducted before the conference (on the 13th and 14th). If you want to propose one, the deadline for application is the 15th of November 2015.

It is about time to provide an update on the status of the SBE conference series. As most readers of this website are aware, the series is managed by CIB, iiSBE, UNEP-SBCI and FIDIC and operates on a three-year cycle. This year has a focus on planning, while next year will feature at least 19 and probably 20 national events, to be climaxed in 2017 by the World SBE conference in Hong Kong. The attached file provides a current overview of the situation.

We bring you a final reminder that the Euro-ELECS conference will take place in one week in Guimaraes, Portugal (usually reached via Porto). This event will bring together a number of researchers, primarily from Brazil and Portugal, for several days of intense presentations and discussions over three days, followed by one day of technical visits.

The conference will include presentations by well-known European speakers, including Miguel Almado, Augusta Hermida, Manuela Almeida, Ronald Rovers, Thomas Luetzkendorf, Petr Hajek. Non-European speakers will include Cristina Engel de Alvarez and Miguel Sattler from Brazil, Tatsuo Oka from Japan and Nils Larsson from Canada.

A two-day meeting took place last week in Nice, sponsored by UNEP-SBCI, a group called GI-REC (Cities, Engine to Sustainability), Energies 2050, a French NGO, and IFDD (Institut de la Francophone pour le Developpement Durable). The two days I attended were part of a week-long program that included two days for a Francophone summer university, a one-day session on “sustainable hotels” (bring your own towels?).

Concordia University in Montreal is organizing a small expert symposium of interest for 19-21 August 2015. The event is formally called CZEBS-iiSBE Net-Zero Built Environment 2015 Symposium and is organized by the Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS) at Concordia University. Speakers will be focusing on issues covering smart, net-zero and resilient Buildings and Communities.